Backtrack: BCCJ & Harvard Social Enterprise Conference

Let's back it up a week or two - a little late is better than never, right? I had the opportunity to participate in two great events in the past few weeks: a networking breakfast with BCCJ and the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference. Combining them into one week made for a fabulous reminder of all of the exciting, high-impact stuff going on out there and the reason that I'm studying in grad school right now.

Starting with BCCJ - it stands for the Boston Center for Community and Justice. Their mission is to develop a diverse community of socially responsible leaders that advances social justice throughout Greater Boston. The speaker for this particular networking breakfast talked about "Business Strategies for the Age of Conscious Capitalism". He was a marketing professor from Bentley College and did a great job of explaining why this is the time to change things to make business more sustainable. One particular statement that resonated with me was that profits should be the outcome of doing the right thing, not the driver. This seems like a highly plausible strategy, given the recent statistics that I've seen where the companies who are part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index have consistently outperformed companies who are not. So, maybe we should be thinking about how to be a good, conscious business generating positive returns for society and then our profits will follow? No more of this profit vs. social responsibility talk.

Another great piece of the BCCJ breakfast was the networking component. We had a chance for a good deal of discussion around our table before and after the presenter. I met some wonderfully intelligent people who are working for social justice and responsible business in their daily lives, and it was great to connect with this community. BCCJ does several interesting events and programs throughout the year - they are definitely a group of people that I want to stay connected with.

Reinforcing the fire that was ignited at the BCCJ breakfast, the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference fell just a few days later. Hosted by students at HBS and Harvard's Kennedy School, this conference was one of the best $40 purchases of my entire graduate school career (and I'm not just saying that because the goodie bag was fabulous, though it really was - an entire box of Newman's Own cereal and a bag of Dancing Deer cookies?! Yes, please.) The format of the breakout sessions was all panels so that there was a great deal of audience participation and time for questions. It was fun to get a chance to interact with the great minds on the panels in this way.

I attended a session on human capital in education where we heard from panelists from the New Teacher Project, a start-up charter school in NYC and two other education organizations. I've been reminded of my interest in education and year of service programs this semester and think this is a field that I may be interested in working in someday. There are so many innovative education-focused social enterprises out there to study and create change through.

I also attended sessions on social investing and food & social change. Food issues are another of my interests that have recently been reignited. We make choices everyday about the food that we will consume, and those choices pack so much punch. Behind every bite of food there is a story about how it was created - how were the workers treated who picked or packaged it, how many pesticides were used that potentially may damage the earth, what sorts of artificial and unhealthy chemicals are we being exposed to? I think food is another area where it is possible to create great change and I was inspired by the panelists that I heard - particularly, the Executive Director of Slowfood USA and an exec from Newman's Own.

Overall, the past few weeks have been exciting and formative as I continue to learn about what's already going on to create social change, what new problems and challenges are continually popping up and ways that I might want to work in these fields upon graduation. Here's to learning a little something new every single day!